Aoife Wafer revels in 'crazy' Six Nations Player of the Tournament gong as Ireland's World Cup adventure looms large
In a sign that being named Women's Six Nations Player of the Year is still sinking in, Aoife Wafer reached for the adjective "crazy" more than once as she reflected on the honour on Wednesday evening.
The Ireland flanker was announced as the winner on Monday, earning 41% of the fan poll, and ultimately seeing off competition from the other nominees, England winger Abby Dow, France second row Manaé Feleu and Scotland back row Evie Gallagher.
Coming out on top in a shortlist alongside that trio was something the 22-year-old was not expecting.
"It's a bit crazy to be honest. They're all phenomenal athletes and there's so many people that could have and should have been nominated as well," she told RTÉ 2fm's Game On.
"We've so many superstars on our team as well, so to be nominated is class and then to get the fan support and to be voted as the best player in Six Nations is pretty undescribable to be honest."
The Wexford native topped a host of statistical tables during the 2025 tournament, making 70 carries - the most of any player - for a staggering 424.7 metres, beating 17 defenders in the process, the second highest of any forward in the championship. And that's not mentioning her four-try haul.
"Thankfully I've been able to put out a couple of good performances but I still have so much to learn," she said.
"At the end of the day I'm only 22 and I'm really excited for even what's to come at the end of the year in the World Cup, so it's a bit crazy to be honest."
Ireland finished third in the tournament and while Wafer sees areas for improvement, she felt that Scott Bemand's team have made clear strides with the World Cup looming in August when they will share a pool with New Zealand, Spain and Japan.
"Personally, I'd look at it as probably some of those games got away from us and it could have potentially been a tournament that we finished second instead of third in the likes of if we'd beat France and if we'd beat Scotland and then put a bit more competition in England," she said.
"But there are so many positives to take from it as well. We've come such a long way in the two years that Scott's been over us and it's a completely changed side to what was pre Scott's era.
"The end of this year is going to be incredibly exciting but we'll definitely have to take some learnings from this year's Six Nations and kind of be a bit more... like taking chances in those scoring zones because we want to beat Tier One nations and it's not every often that you get those chances when you're in their '22 so you have to take every one of them."
And amid reports in the Irish Indepedent about a potential move to English club Harlequins after the World Cup being on the verge of fruition, Wafer was coy about the prospect and switched the spotlight onto her recovery from injury.
"I'm just trying to get back from my knee (injury). I haven't seen anything yet," she said.
"I picked up an injury there against Wales so I'm just doing everything I can to get back from it and try to put my hand up for selection again for the World Cup."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Nathan Collins tries to take positives from poor Luxembourg performance
Nathan Collins knows Ireland's performance in Luxembourg wasn't good enough but the skipper is still drawing on the Boys in Green laboured to a 0-0 draw and nearly won it at the death when Jack Taylor smashed a shot off the despite a frustrating night, Ireland are still unbeaten in their four games this year going into the World Cup campaign in ace Collins said: 'A lot of things weren't right. Before the game we didn't want it to be that last game, end of season friendly feel to it.'We didn't want to be that passive and wanted to get after them more but we weren't at that.'But considering we're nowhere near our best, we still dug out a clean sheet. But we all know that was nowhere near our best, and we have so much more to give.'Collins continued: 'We're lucky that the result still carries momentum. The way we played we could have lost that.'We didn't deserve to win but to sit in and defend the way we did, we didn't deserve to lose.'Credit to Max O'Leary, he's been in the camp a long time and not got his caps but made two great saves.'Doc (Matt Doherty) got a tackle in and Knighty was class in front of us. We weren't at our best but we defended well, dug in and had our chances'And when we come back in September we will build on that. We have great momentum and we haven't lost in a few games.'We know there are more things to work on and get better at. Going unbeaten in four into a qualifier, I've never experienced that before so it's good.'Collins played every minute of the Premier League season for Brentford and has been a mainstay for Ireland of the players are heading straight on their holidays from Luxembourg, so Collins feels there are reasons for the flat performance.'It's been a long season,' he said. 'I've been trying to push myself to the limit. I'm physically tired, but I'm more mentally tired. I doubt I'm the only one in that boat.'We've pushed ourselves to the max this season. Away to Luxembourg, it's not an easy game.'They played a really good game, they were very good, they pressed high and that probably hurt us as well.'I know the passiveness was there but we still made them force things, we still defended in a nice solid way and made them go around us.'And Collins also believes that some fringe players have put their hands up for selection against Hungary in September after capitalising on the absence of others.'I think that's the whole point of this, you want players to come in, you want players under pressure for the next person,' he added.'You want to have that feeling, that the people behind you are pushing for your spot, it's a great thing.'
RTÉ News
an hour ago
- RTÉ News
Isaac Price is right as 10-man Northern Ireland edge Iceland
Isaac Price made the difference at both ends of the pitch as 10-man Northern Ireland clung on for a 1-0 friendly win over Iceland in their final match before the World Cup qualifying campaign. Price lit up a drab first half to put Northern Ireland ahead, but then had to head off his own line as it turned into a defensive scrap after Brodie Spencer was sent off for denying a goalscoring opportunity when Hakon Haraldsson went over under a slight touch just before the hour. Michael O'Neill would have been hoping for a more straightforward night as he looks ahead to the autumn, but will take encouragement from the way his young side dealt with adversity to keep a clean sheet. Before kick-off there was a presentation for the recently retired Steven Davis and Jonny Evans, two members of the Euro 2016 squad who each earned more than 100 caps for Northern Ireland. But there was nothing to recognise Peter McParland, despite this game taking place only two days after his funeral. McParland, who scored five goals for Northern Ireland at the 1958 World Cup, died last month aged 91. O'Neill made five changes to the side that started Saturday's 2-1 defeat to Copenhagen in Denmark, handing a long-awaited debut to Ronan Hale following his switch from the Republic of Ireland. He saw little of the ball in a tepid start to the match as neither side looked capable of creating anything. But in the 36th minute Northern Ireland took the lead out of nowhere and Price, who on Monday talked about how he has greater confidence following his move to West Brom in January, was the man to deliver his ninth international goal. George Saville beat Arnor Ingvi Traustason to the ball, caught by a heavy challenge as he did so, and referee Morten Krogh played advantage. The ball ran to Price, who took a couple of touches before bending a shot into the bottom-right corner of the net. Northern Ireland had finally woken up, and in first-half stoppage time Hale was inches away from a debut goal, cracking a shot off the crossbar after Trai Hume flicked on Justin Devenny's cross. Ethan Galbraith replaced Paul Smyth at the break and was a whisker wide of a first international goal in the 56th minute with a flicked header from Shea Charles' free-kick. Then Hale burst into the box and got beyond the despairing dive of Brentford goalkeeper Hakon Valdimarsson, but his low cross was beyond Price. The mood changed completely in the 57th minute. Spencer got into a foot race with Haraldsson, and the Iceland skipper went down theatrically under the slightest of touches. Krogh immediately produced a red card with Spencer the last man. Iceland turned up the pressure as Northern Ireland were forced to defend their box and temperatures were raised. Goalscorer Price turned into a defensive hero in the 67th minute, clearing Andri Gudjohnsen's header off the line, before Kristian Hlynsson sent a good chance narrowly wide. In stoppage time, goalkeeper Pierce Charles kept out a point-blank header from Isak Johannesson and Northern Ireland held on.
RTÉ News
an hour ago
- RTÉ News
World Cup qualifiying wrap: Netherlands run riot, lengthy delay in Helsinki
Memphis Depay equalled Robin van Persie as the Netherlands ' all-time leading men's goalscorer with a brace in an 8-0 thumping of Malta in World Cup qualifying in Groningen. Depay opened the scoring after nine minutes from the spot and then moved level with fellow ex-Manchester United man Van Persie on 50 goals for the Dutch with his strike just after a quarter of an hour. In doing so, Depay matched Van Persie's record after the same number of games – 102 – before Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk fired beyond Henry Bonello from the edge of the box after 20 minutes. Depay teed up Xavi Simons to score after the break while substitutes Donyell Malen struck twice and Noa Lang once before Tottenham defender Micky van de Ven completed the rout as the Dutch made it two wins from two in Group G. At the weekend, the Netherlands won in Finland, who rebounded by beating Poland 2-1 in Helsinki, where there was a lengthy break in play because a supporter had to be treated in the stands. Joel Pohjanpalo scored a penalty and Benjamin Kallman came off the bench to net, Arsenal's Jakub Kiwior pulling one back before a second-half delay. The Football Association of Finland tweeted the fan was taken to hospital, before the final minutes were played just after midnight local time with the hosts holding on to win. Austria claimed back-to-back wins in Group H by sweeping aside minnows San Marino 4-0 in Serravalle thanks to a double from Marko Arnautovic. The veteran Inter Milan forward found the net twice inside the first quarter of an hour, with Michael Gregoritsch also on target, before Christoph Baumgartner completed the rout. Arnautovic missed out on a treble after his late penalty was saved by Edoardo Colombo. Florin Tanase and Dennis Man both struck just before half-time as Romania defeated Cyprus 2-0 in Bucharest. In Group K, England's rivals Serbia claimed a 3-0 win over Andorra in Leskovac thanks to an Aleksandar Mitrovic hat-trick, while Latvia and Albania drew 1-1 in Riga where Latvia's Antonijs Cernomordijs scored for both teams and Janis Ikaunieks missed a penalty.
